Putin Claims Russia Close to Creating Cancer Vaccines

Facts

• Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin told the Future Technologies Forum on Wednesday that Moscow has come 'very close' to creating cancer vaccines and a new generation of immunomodulatory drugs.¹
• This comes after the UK signed an agreement with BioNTech last year to launch clinical trials for personalized cancer treatments by 2030. Moderna and Merck & Co. have been working on an experimental vaccine that has reportedly shown promising results against skin cancer in pre-clinical trials.²
• Earlier this month, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer released an estimate that global cancer diagnoses will reach 35M in 2050, up from 20M in 2022.³
• Putin also praised a 2019 federal cancer-fighting program that he claimed has helped detect most oncology cases at an early stage, expand the use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and, consequently, brought down cancer mortality rates in the country.⁴
• According to the WHO Mortality Database, the annual age-standardized death rate from cancer in Russia was 119.8 per 100K people — the 23rd highest in the world — in 2019.⁵
• Meanwhile, a top public health official in Russia has announced that a live cell-derived flu vaccine, called VectorVacQuadri, has a prototype ready for pre-clinical trials.⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Independent, ³CNN, ⁴President of Russia, ⁵Our World in Data and ⁶TASS.

Narratives

• Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by RT International. After making huge progress in the early detection and treatment of cancer, Russia is now on the verge of producing a revolution in healthcare, making medical advancements that were once unimaginable. Cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs are just examples of what is to come, with brain chips to restore a person's sight also being developed.
• Anti-Russia narrative, as provided by Evening Standard. As Putin has given no details about which kinds of cancer the proposed vaccines would target, or even how they would work, it's hard to believe in a word he says. One must never forget that he made similar bold claims regarding the anti-COVID Sputnik V vaccine, which turned out to be totally ineffective.

Predictions